Living Out Your Calling

Titus Living Out Your Calling - Titus 1:1-4 September 14, 2025 We're starting a new series this morning. Back in the New Testament, in the book of Titus. Titus is a letter written by Paul, so it's with the other letters of Paul. As a personal letter, it is behind the letters to the churches, after 1-2 Timothy, and right before Philemon. For professing Christians, while we are saved by grace, through faith, there is still an expectation on how we're supposed to live. This is evidenced in the media when any Christian leader is caught in sin or misconduct. Paul, in one of his letters (Romans, chapter 12) says that we're to be transformed by Christ, and that we cannot conform to the world. So, there is biblical backing to this idea of "being different." But what does that look like? In large part, this is what Paul addresses in his letter to Titus. He's writing to this young church leader to lead his church into a lifestyle of godliness. Typical of Paul, he begins with using himself as an example of living out his calling, and the foundation of that calling. However, before we get there, it seems like it is always appropriate to provide some background when starting a new book. There are three primary "characters," if you will, in this short letter. First, of course, is ... * Paul. o I think most of us are familiar with Paul. o Paul is credited as authoring 13 of the New Testament books. o We will see in verse one how Paul introduced himself. * He first called himself a servant of God. * Some translations will use "bondservant" or "slave" * One author said this about slavery in the first century: a slave in the first century did not act on his own authority but on the authority of his master. * This is critical, as it gives us, as followers of Jesus the right mindset on how we should live. o We then see that Paul was called an Apostle of Jesus * An apostle, literally, is someone who is sent by another. * This is why the "of Jesus" is critical, as it determines the type of apostle Paul was, or Who sent him. * In other words, Paul was chosen by and sent out by Jesus Himself. * This is a critical detail because Jesus Himself called twelve men to be Apostles. This is found in Mark 3:13-19, Luke 6:12-16, and Matthew 10:1-4. * In addition, back in Acts chapter one, the eleven believed that they were responsible for replacing Judas, who was the one who betrayed Jesus. * It was then where they developed a criteria for someone to be qualified as an apostle, to include that they were disciples of Jesus (meaning that they followed and accompanied Jesus during His ministry, and of John the Baptist's ministry), and that they saw the Resurrected Jesus, in addition to witnessing His ascension. * Those were the qualifications of an Apostle. * Paul was called by Jesus, as recorded in Acts 9, to be an Apostle. o This is important also for the modern church as people today will claim to be an Apostle, and biblically, that is just not accurate. o So, Paul, under the authority of his Apostleship writes this letter to a local church leader named ... * Titus. o Who, of course, is the next person in this book. o He's named in verse 4, which we'll get to shortly. o We learn about Paul in the book of Acts. It is there too where we meet many of his co-workers. However, we don't meet Titus there. o He is first mentioned in Galatians, then a little later in 2 Corinthians. o What we do know is that Titus is Paul's "child in the faith," which means that Titus was a convert of Paul, who later became a co-worker of his. Galatians 2 indicates that Titus was with Paul in Jerusalem, and from 2 Corinthians we know that Titus was familiar to the Corinthian church. o Galatians 2 also indicates that Titus was a Gentile convert. o Next week, we will see in verse 5 that Titus was left by Paul in Crete to lead the church there. o So, what about Crete? o Glad you asked, the next group involved here is ... * The Church in Crete. o The Cretens were first mentioned in Acts 2, present among the groups at Pentecost. Which indicates that they were likely among the first group of people who formed the early church. o Crete was an island in the Mediterranean, known as the "mythical birthplace of Zues." o They were also known for their celebration of sin and false teachers. o We will see in our passage next week that they had a not-so-good reputation, which was one of the purposes of this letter. With that background in mind, let's read Titus 1:1-4 and see what we can learn from Paul. 1 PAUL, A SERVANT OF GOD AND AN APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST, FOR THE SAKE OF THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT AND THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH, WHICH ACCORDS WITH GODLINESS, 2 IN HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE, WHICH GOD, WHO NEVER LIES, PROMISED BEFORE THE AGES BEGAN 3 AND AT THE PROPER TIME MANIFESTED IN HIS WORD THROUGH THE PREACHING WITH WHICH I HAVE BEEN ENTRUSTED BY THE COMMAND OF GOD OUR SAVIOR; 4 TO TITUS, MY TRUE CHILD IN A COMMON FAITH: GRACE AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER AND CHRIST JESUS OUR SAVIOR. Let's first identify the main idea of our short passage this morning: In Christ, I find my calling. We mentioned Paul's words, and application of those descriptive words earlier. They point to how the Lord sees Paul, and how He decided to use Paul. This is important, even for you and me today, as understanding God's calling for us, will help to serve Him better. It will help us to be more impactful in our duty to our God. Notice, however, the qualifier is that we are "in Christ." In other words, when Christ calls us to Himself, He has a purpose for us, usually carried out by our calling. So, let's discuss, using Paul's introduction, some IMPLICATIONS OF OUR CALLING: First, * I am a servant of God first (v.1) o There's a lot packed into this one verse, which is typical of Paul o We previously mentioned that Paul called himself a servant first, then an Apostle. o This really shows Paul's humility. o We know that he understood his position before God. o I think about some of these "famous" preachers, and how their ministries are very self-focused. o I saw a video recently of a woman, who claims to be an Apostle, who called for her critics to become disciples of her, so that they could be blessed. * Yes, you heard me correctly, her disciples, not Christ's. * Because they wronged her, not Christ. o Paul never elevated himself above others, in fact, he was consistently defending himself, which is what you see a bit here as well. o Not to elevate himself, but why? So, he could freely lead God's people through the message of the Gospel. o We see that through Paul's calling, he leads people into three areas, beginning with: * Faith. * Who's faith? * The faith of God's elect. o By the way, this simply refers to those who have answered the call to follow Jesus. * Then, in ... * Knowledge. * Of what? * The truth. * What truth? * The Gospel - which is that "preaching" he speaks of in verse 3. * This truth leads to ... * Godliness. * This speaks to those who live according to the right standard. o That standard? o The Bible. * Those who conform to correct doctrine. o Found where? The Bible. o You will see, as we get into this letter in coming weeks, there was a problem with bad doctrine, and this is a problem that Paul addresses, and has Titus address as well. * One commentator rightly stated that "the true Gospel always produces godliness." * Another stated that if the message does not produce godliness, it is not godly. o Paul's role as an Apostle came second to his role as a servant. o Because, as we noted earlier, being a servant means total surrender to your Master. o Our role, in our call as disciples, is to be a servant first. o Next, we learn from Paul's opening that ... * My hope is in the promises of God (vv.2-3) o When we hear the word "hope" in contemporary English, it conveys this idea of wishful thinking. But, when it is used in the Bible, the word conveys certainty. o We've seen this a ton in the last several sermon series, haven't we? o You know what that means? o That the Word of God is consistent through the two testaments, all the various writers, in the different genres, and so forth o There is a consistent truth being told, all through the same thread, leading to Jesus. o The first hope that we hold onto is the promise of eternal life. o We are told here to stand on that promise. o To live in a way that reflects our faith in that promise. o Paul continues, of course, with a couple of statements that speak to the Lord's character. o One statement is that God does not lie. o If God lies, that makes Him not God. o So, God promised this hope of eternal life. o When? * From the beginning * That's what he means there at the end of verse 2 when he says "BEFORE THE AGES BEGAN" * Then, when that thought continues about the "PROPER TIME," Paul is revealing to us that Jesus came at the right time in history for the purpose of giving eternal life to those who follow Him. o To recap: * God promised us eternal life in His Son. * This was not a last minute plan, or an afterthought - it was the plan from the beginning. * Then, when Christ came, it was the perfect time. o Finally, this was promised through the Word of God. * Did you see that in verse 3? * The "PREACHING" of Paul and the others? o The Bible is the truth, that reveals this promise and the hope that we have in it and through it. o Are you holding on to that hope? o Finally, verse 4 reveals that ... * My service is with the people of God (v.4) o Paul mentions a collective or common faith both here and in verse 1. o He reminds us that we are all part of the same family, sharing the same heavenly Father. o Our church is called "Thornydale Family Church" * This has double meaning, really * We are a "Family" in part because of the multi-generational demographic that we have here, but also because we are all Family under God, through our common faith in Jesus. o Paul writes about this in Ephesians, as well. On the unity we share in Christ. o This common faith is what brings us together. * It doesn't matter what your social status is * It doesn't matter what your bank account balance is * It doesn't matter what the color of your skin is * It doesn't matter what your ethnic background is * Why? Because Galatians 3:28 reminds us that we are all one in Christ Jesus. o Here, in this letter, we will see that Paul addresses all areas of the Christian life to include the Church, the home, the really the world - how to live and navigate in the world. o In his greeting to Titus, we see that they serve the same God and therefore serve His family. o What we'll see as we move forward in this letter is how the church is ordered to accomplish what we've seen in verses 1-4. Namely ... * Increasing the faith of God's elect, * Increasing their knowledge of truth, * Increasing towards godliness * Increasing our hope in God's promises Earlier, I said in our main idea: In Christ, I find my calling. While we're not all called to be Apostles, we are all called to grow in Christ. Through this letter, that is what we'll be challenged to do. Within the church. Within the home. And when we are out in the world. In Christ, it is possible. Because He died, and rose again, we belong to Him. He once told His disciples that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we would do more for the Kingdom than even Himself. Before He ascended, Jesus called each of us to make disciples. Will you be that bold? Paul was bold in his witness for his Savior, and he called Titus to do the same. Thus, this is also our call as followers of Jesus, to be bold for Jesus. Will you be that bold? Let's pray. 2